First Aid Corps

Dr. Craig Levine, an oral surgeon from Merrick, was at a bar mitzvah at the Seawane Country Club in Hewlett last Saturday when he saw his friend Lew Goldman, the host of the event, passed out on the dance floor.

Craig Levine (left) the Saviour

With the help of an automated external defibrillator, Levine revived Goldman.

“I immediately knew that he was in cardiac arrest, and I yelled out for someone to get an AED,” said Levine, who has campaigned to make defibrillators more readily available. “I unfortunately have been through experiences like this.”

In 2005, Levine’s son Robbie, 9, died on a Little League ballfield in Merrick. A policeman responding to the scene brought an AED, but it was too late.

In Levine’s Bay Shore office in April 2007, he saw a patient waiting for a dental consultation collapse from a heart attack.

Levine brought out an AED and saved her life.

“All these things that happen make me think of my son,” Levine said. “I couldn’t save my son, but I saved the lives of two people and spared their families.”

Goldman collapsed during his twin sons’ bar mitzvah.

“I don’t know what to make of it, why this keeps happening,” Levine said Friday, shaking his head ruefully.

“The real story is the AED saved my life,” Goldman said Friday from his Merrick home, where he was recovering. “Craig Levine is a hero.”

“The fact that Craig was there and they had an AED at the Seawane Country Club, and that it happened that night, I’m one lucky man,” Goldman said.

Half an hour into a tennis set Tuesday morning, Nov. 3, Ray Schami,72 , began to lean over, bracing his hands on his thighs, then fell to the ground.

Ray Schami (center) the Survivor

“He was gasping,” said Ron Kydd, 67. “And [his breathing] wasn’t regular. It was sort of one big gasp and then something and then nothing. Nothing.”

John Stevenson, 72, dashed for his phone and called 9-1-1, and he and Kydd rolled Schami onto his back and started doing CPR, trading off between them.

Kydd said that he’d done his training a few years ago and was able to remember the counting for the breaths and chest compressions. And Stevenson says that as a fitness instructor and personal trainer, he has done CPR training pretty regularly over the last decade or so.

“After a few minutes, when it was obvious that Ray’s pulse was weak if it was present at all — it was so hard to tell, because we’re panicking — I went out to the car while John continued the CPR, and I got the defibrillator that my wife and I carry in the car,” Kydd said. “We carry it because we live in Roberts Creek and it’s 15 minutes from an ambulance, if you’re lucky.”

“The first thing it says is, ‘Be calm.’ Well, no chance of that,” Kydd said wryly. “And then it tells you to check the airways and the various steps you’re supposed to do, including attaching the pads to the person’s chest, which I did. And then it analyzes. It says, ‘Analyzing, analyzing.’ And then it said, ‘Shock recommended,’ and ‘Stand back.’ And so at that time I pushed the button and gave the shock.”

Kydd administered two separate shocks, between rounds of CPR, and then paramedics and firefighters arrived and continued working on Schami.

Paramedics took Schami to St. Mary’s Hospital until he could be transferred by helicopter to St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, where he was put in a medically-induced coma for 24 hours. He had a defibrillator implanted and was released from hospital Saturday, Nov. 14.

Now, he says, he’s still feeling weak, but is counting his blessings that his heart attack happened in the right place, near the right people.

“I live alone so I could have been alone and had this heart attack and have been found a week or so later by neighbours,” he said. “[My children] would have been concerned [when they hadn’t heard from me as usual] and my neighbours would have walked in to find me dead.”

Jerry Davidson, David Feitelberg and Mike Wilson didn’t expect a call for heroics when they headed out to play golf with their friend Bob McKenzie on Sept. 29.

Bob Mckenzie (seated) the Survivor

When McKenzie suddenly collapsed on the third green, the three men summoned help, performed CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and guided emergency responders to the scene.

Another man who rose to meet the challenge was nearby groundskeeper Kurtis Buyze, who ran back to the clubhouse to get a phone and returned with a B.C. Ambulance Service dispatcher on the line. The dispatcher offered invaluable assistance by guiding the group through their CPR procedure over the phone, Feitelberg said.

“The detailed expert advice gave us the assurance to continue what we were doing until the paramedics arrived.”

Buyze was amazed at the prompt response by local emergency crews.

“By the time I got back, I was only doing CPR for a minute or so before first responders and paramedics got there. I think we’re pretty lucky to live in a community like that.”

Following a shock from an automated external defibrillator (AED) administered by emergency personnel on the scene, McKenzie’s heart recovered a viable rhythm and he was transported to Lady Minto Hospital for further treatment and assessment.

“I don’t remember much of the incident, but I’m feeling pretty good now apart from sore ribs,” McKenzie said.

“I was truly blessed to be with my great friends who knew what to do — CPR — and they did it with the greenskeeper’s help,” said McKenzie.

On July 30, Ted Seaman slumped to the floor of the Cheltenham squash court after suffering a massive heart attack.

Ross, 32, says he got the fright of his life when Ted had his heart attack.

He said: “His face was deep purple and Ted started to stumble backwards.”

“I grabbed hold of him and lowered him to the floor but the rest of him was deathly white.”

“I used to be a lifeguard but I haven’t done any training for years so I thought the best thing to do was make sure someone was on their way. I shouted for an ambulance to be called and then I screamed for someone who knew first aid.”

“I knew I had to do something so I turned him on his back.”

Fortunately, fellow club-member Dr Robinson was in the building and came running over.

Working as a team, he and Ross gave him mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions, before the doctor used the defibrillator.

Oil company worker Ross, who lives in Clarence Square, said: “It all happened within a few minutes, but it seemed like half an hour.”

“I was just willing him to stay alive. It really hit me when I got home how close he was to dying. I’m just so glad he made it through.”

He was rushed to Cheltenham General Hospital before being transferred to the heart unit at Bristol Royal.

Had the machine not been available, vital seconds would have been lost before paramedics arrived and Ted would have died.

He said: “The first thing I knew about it was when I woke up in hospital and there were doctors all around me.”

“I hadn’t felt any pain or dizzyness beforehand so there were no warning signs. I just collapsed and that was it.”

“I had a very sore chest afterwards, but I put that down to the 16-stone man I’d just beaten at squash pushing on my chest!”

“I wouldn’t be here if that piece of equipment wasn’t there and Ross hadn’t reacted the way he did. I owe him a big thank you.”

Ted, from Churchill Drive, Charlton Kings, regularly played squash and considered himself fit before he collapsed.

Di Pierce, the manager of the East Glos Club, in Old Bath Road, said: “Thankfully the defibrillator was here to help. It’s something we’ve had for four years after being persuaded by the ambulance service it would be a sensible idea.”

A Great Western Ambulance spokesman said: “I’m delighted to hear Mr Seaman continues to make a good recovery. Our paramedics who arrived on scene believe that the excellent quality CPR given to him in the first crucial minutes before they arrived saved his life.”